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Being in AURORA’s presence is a remarkable feeling. She’s magnetic, and while most pop stars tend to have something somewhat sparkly about them, watching the ever-elegant 28-year-old Aurora Aksnes frisk across the grand Royal Albert Hall stage, long sleeves ribboning behind her, awakens that long-forgotten childhood memory of believing in fairytale creatures. She’s surely a fairy – and one that is also wildly, mischievously funny.
Pondering over the venue’s renowned shape, she marvels in her pixie-like voice, “I really like that it’s round…it’s like we’re in a soup”, receiving one of many laughs from the audience tonight. Later on, she playfully improvises operatic monkey-ish noises, dubbing it her ‘mating call’ to a zealous reciprocation of animalistic cries from her fans. “I’m sorry, Mama, Papa”, she grins, apologising to her family who are also in the crowd. “We’re all going to get laid tonight!”.
Working her magic here for her What Happened To The Earth? Part 1 tour, AURORA performs tracks from this year’s acclaimed What Happened To The Heart album, as well as some of her most beloved hits and fan favourites.
A pacific beginning, the show opens with the wistful trio of Churchyard, Soulless Creatures and A Soul With No King, the Norwegian star frolicking around the stage with the fluidity of water, her voice taking similar consistency, flowing and shimmering in its divinely high pitch.
After a sweet, slightly-nervous talk with her audience – AURORA admits to using chatter to ground herself into her performances, despite “all the crap that comes out of this little mouth” – she casts the energy upwards with Heathens, its tumbling drums conjuring a wild, pagan spirit, as her voice glides swiftly to the rafters.
Continuing the momentum with the Kate Bush-coded When the Dark Dresses Lightly, her two backing singers/instrumentalists are positioned to create a triangle formation, and march to the thumping beat in front of the sword-wielding AURORA on screen. Elsewhere, the screen displays her in a Mighty Boosh-esque moon costume, as well as a strange sun creature.
For the sleepily-gorgeous Dreams, AURORA recalls the delightful story of how as a child, she would often spend her time playing in the forest, her parents summoning her home with the sound of a cowbell.
Other wholesome moments arrive with the TikTok viral Runaway, as she reflects on the complexities of being human. “We let our minds get the better of us”, she says. “Being human is too much. It’s a human sport, just living. We are all athletes.” Sharing the uplifting affirmation, she continues, “I am so glad you are still here”, before dedicating the track to the children of war-torn countries, including the Congo, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon.
Throughout the night, AURORA gifts plenty more parcels of nourishing, love-filled wisdom. “It’s strange that it’s so hard to be different in this world because everyone is different”, she notes during Some Type Of Skin. For Cure For Me, dancing with a LGBTQ+ flag fixed around her like a cape.
With her enriching and often entertaining words, AURORA manages to make the performance feel incredibly intimate, while the spectacle of it continuously dazzles, her audience responding with deafening screams, shouts and declarations of love. Echo Of My Shadow, The Seed and The River all receive accompaniment from resident Royal Albert Hall organist Anna Lapwood, adding a churchly decadence, the latter performed entirely a capella, as her and her band turn into a choir. The beautiful Exist For Love, also sung a capella, is illuminated with twinkling phone torches from the audience, as AURORA comments how it’s like looking out into the universe. Towards the end, the rave-inspired Starvation sees the crowd get up from their seats, and vigorously shake their bodies: if there’s one flaw with the setting tonight, it’s that the songs can’t be enjoyed fully how they should – everyone freely dancing and not confined by seating.
Endlessly magical, AURORA’s performance is a celebration of humanity in all its contrasting, confusing beauty. Joyous and brimming with love – both for the human experience and her fans around her – AURORA hosts a transformative, soul-cleansing evening, one that feels unfair to end. Fortunately, and deservingly, she’ll perform the second part of her tour next May at her largest headline show to date at Wembley Arena. We’ll be counting down the days.